Liverpool flat [Edge Hill] at centre of Al-Qaeda bomb factory hunt

A CRUMBLING city flat was today at the centre of a search for a suspected Al-Qaeda bomb factory.

Officers were yesterday seen moving boxes and bags out of the block in Highgate Street, Edge Hill.

When anti-terror police raided the property late on Wednesday afternoon, following the arrest of a student at John Moores University, residents were evacuated from the road and made to wait behind a cordon.

A cordon remained around the block of flats today.

No-one was inside when it was stormed by police.

Officers made arrests at other properties in Earle Road, also Edge Hill, and Cedar Grove, Toxteth, as well as outside the JMU library.

ADVERTISING

The five men picked up during Operation Pathway were today still in police custody. It is believed they have been split up and taken to police stations in Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds, joining seven other men arrested in Greater Manchester and Lancashire.

Police revealed 11 of the 12 men are Pakistani nationals in Britain on student visas. The last is a British man. They are aged from their late teens to early 40s.

Speculation was mounting today over a possible plot to blow up Easter shoppers, although Whitehall security sources told the ECHO Liverpool was not a likely target.

The men were reportedly watched by undercover officers as they took pictures and filmed themselves at high-profile shopping and leisure locations in and around Manchester.

It is thought they were seen outside the Trafford Centre, Manchester?s Arndale Centre and a Manchester nightclub.

By Ben Rossington, Liverpool Echo

Liverpool in Pictures/ YO! Liverpool has taken me over 10 years to develop and maintain.

ANTI-terror police were today searching a second address in a Liverpool block of flats.

The flats on Highgate Street, Edge Hill, have been sealed off since being raided on Wednesday night as police look for a suspected Al-Qaeda bomb factory.

Their efforts were initially concentrated on one flat inside the crumbling building but the search has now spread to a second address.

Extra officers arrived in the road just after 11.30am today and were seen entering the premises clutching evidence bags. A number of items were removed from Highgate Street yesterday and taken away for analysis.

Police believe by arresting 12 men in Liverpool, Manchester and Lancashire they have foiled a potentially major terrorist attack. All the suspects - including the five arrested in Liverpool - were still in custody today.

Further searches at properties in Edge Hill and Toxteth were also continuing.

Greater Manchester Police, who are leading the investigation, today said in the initial stage of the operation on Wednesday, two further men were technically arrested on Merseyside.

However, as soon as their identities were verified they were dearrested. Police said, contrary to some media reports, neither was taken into a police station, held in cells or interviewed for several hours.

Liverpool Echo

Liverpool in Pictures/ YO! Liverpool has taken me over 10 years to develop and maintain.

At least one of the men arrested in the counter-terrorist raids this week was living in a property owned by a man on the run for allegedly financing groups working alongside Al Qaeda.

Mohammed Benhammedi, who appears alongside Osama Bin Laden on Interpol?s wanted list, is accused of channelling money to terrorists through his British companies.

A property Benhammedi owns in Liverpool was raided on Wednesday as part of an investigation into what Gordon Brown described as ?a very big terrorist plot?.

Arrests: This flat, over an off-licence, was raided by police. It is owned by Mohammed Benhammedi who is wanted by Interpol

Witnesses said one man was arrested by police as he entered the ?115,000 flat, but it is believed two of the other 11 men detained this week were also tenants in Benhammedi?s property.

Benhammedi is accused by the US Treasury and the United Nations of funding the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an organisation described as being part of the ?wider A Qaeda associated movement? dedicated to jihadi. The group is banned here under terrorism laws.

Yesterday, officers continued to search the property, a three-bedroom flat above an off-licence, as those detained faced further questioning.

An 18-year-old arrested in connection with the plot was released into the custody of the UK Borders Agency, possibly for deportation.

Police have a further seven days to detain the 11 men they still hold, who range in age from 22 to 41, most of whom are believed to have come to Britain from Pakistan on student visas.

Sources have claimed police believe that one of the possible targets for the plot was Manchester?s Piccadilly train station while packed with holiday travellers over the Easter break.

The police operation was rushed forward on Wednesday following a blunder by Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, who inadvertently revealed confidential details of the raids while leaving his car for a Downing Street meeting.

Benhammedi?s flat on Earle Road, in Liverpool?s Wavertree district, was one of ten properties being searched. He bought it with Asaad Shalash in 2004 as part of a business partnership called Ozlam Properties Ltd.

But in 2006, Mr Benhammedi, 42, had his assets and three property firms frozen for his alleged role in financing the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an organisation that the US Government claims attempted to install a hard-line Islamic state in the African country.

Wanted: Benhammedi

A press release from the US Treasury accused Benhammedi of being a ?key financier? of the terrorist group, adding that he was believed to provide funds through three property companies, including Ozlam Properties Ltd.

The statement claimed he had first come to the attention of authorities when he was detained in 2002 by Iranian officials as he attempted to illegally enter Afghanistan.

Benhammedi was subsequently arrested in 2006 in the UK under terrorism legislation for alleged activities in Iraq and was due to be deported.

Last night it was unclear whether Benhammedi had been forced to leave the UK. However, Interpol has appealed for anyone with information on the Libyan-born businessman, who operates under a number of aliases including the westernised name of Ben Hammedi.

Mr Shalash, who was a co-director with Benhammedi in Ozlam Properties, claimed ?complete innocence? of any links with terrorism.

He said he first met Benhammedi in 2004 when he was running a rival property firm called Sara Properties.

He said: ?I was running a company called Ozlam Properties on the same road in Liverpool. We became partners and shared some work, mainly maintenance work and property lets.

?In about 2006, Mr Hammedi was arrested and I understand he was in custody for about five months on terror charges. As a result of that, his business assets, including his interest in my company, were all frozen by the United Nations. The whole thing ultimately cost me about ?180,000.

?He was a flamboyant character and would drive around in limousines with lots of women. He controlled a property empire of some 300 properties in the Liverpool area. I don?t know whether he is a terrorist or not. But as he was released from custody after being arrested, I assumed he was innocent.
?The last time I saw Mr Hammedi was about 18 months ago. But to be honest with you, I do not want to know him.?

Mr Shalash, 46, added that the men living in his property had only recently moved in, each paying a month?s rent in advance. He said: ?The police interviewed me for three hours. They went over all I knew about the men. I told them I knew nothing about them, apart from the fact that they were students.?

This week?s raids caused a diplomatic row between Britain and Pakistan, with Mr Brown calling on Pakistan to do more ?to root out the terrorist elements in its country?.